I imagine we'll bring up all the candidates to talk about at some point. Since we started a debate on Huckabee in another thread I thought we'd have one here for us to discuss the real issues.

Issues are in alphabetical order ...

Quote:

Mike Huckabee on Abortion

Life question reflects nation’s nature & equality of humans. (Feb 2008) Will lead fight for constitutional ban on abortion. (Feb 2008) I’m pro-life, but have no opinion on Justice O’Connor. (Jan 2008) No states rights for moral issues like abortion. (Nov 2007) No tax funding for organizations that promote abortion. (Sep 2007) Led Arkansas to human life amendment in state constitution. (Sep 2007) Consensus impossible: pro-choice world fundamentally differs. (Jun 2007) Hate abortion but allow it is like hate slavery but allow it. (May 2007) Certainly good day for America when Roe v. Wade is repealed. (May 2007) Embryonic stem cell research creates life to end a life. (May 2007) Pro-life includes improving life after birth. (Jan 2007) Outlaw all abortions; err on the side of life. (Jan 2007) Pro-life and pro-death penalty, & sees them as far different. (Jan 2007) Even Americans who are pro-choice are pro-life. (Jan 2007) Eliminate public funding for abortion organizations. (Nov 2002) Supports woman’s right-to-know legislation. (Jan 2001) Pro-life, but respects choice as mandated law. (Jan 2001)

80% of all jobs in this country come from small business. (Jan 2008) Wal-Mart is case study in genius of American marketplace. (Jan 2007) Consumerism is addictive but tranquility is immaterial. (Oct 2000)

Stewardship of the air and land and soil is very important. (Feb 2008) Follow Boy Scout rule: leave earth better than we found it. (May 2007) Supported conserving Buffalo River in north AR against dams. (Jan 2007) Conservatives believe in conservation. (Jan 2007) The earth is the Lord’s; we are merely its caretakers. (Jan 2007) More state autonomy on brownfields & Superfund cleanups. (Aug 2001) Support State Revolving Loan Fund for flexible Clean Water. (Aug 2001) Supports national drought policy, focusing on readiness. (Sep 2001) Maintain water flow in Mississippi & Missouri Rivers. (Feb 2001)

Use everything at president’s disposal to keep US safe. (Feb 2008) Support moderate modern evil over Al-Qaeda’s medieval evil. (Jan 2008) Fight terrorism by increasing spending on armed forces & CIA. (Jan 2008) Torture is unproductive, and should not be US policy. (Dec 2007) Kick rear ends if documents destroyed to protect rear ends. (Dec 2007) Opposes waterboarding; close Guantanamo as a bad symbol. (Dec 2007) Raise enlistment rates with Veterans’ Bill of Rights. (Sep 2007) No student visas to citizens of terrorist states. (Sep 2007) Guantanamo prisoners are treated very well. (Jun 2007) Better to make mistakes at Guantanamo to protect Americans. (Jun 2007) Islamic jihadists celebrate death; we have culture of life. (May 2007) Guard & Reserve did their duty; it’s beginning to wear. (Jan 2007) Strength is more effective deterrent to war than weakness. (Jan 2007) Keeping Guantanamo prisoners more important than location. (Jan 2006) Islamic terror is about worldwide caliphate, not US attacks. (Jan 2006)

Mike Huckabee on Immigration

Illegal immigrants must go home and start over. (Jan 2008) Build a border fence within 18 months of taking office. (Jan 2008) Build a border fence using American labor & materials. (Jan 2008) FactCheck: Yes, supported scholarships for AR illegal aliens. (Dec 2007) Pathway to citizenship must start at back of line, out of US. (Dec 2007) Send illegals home so all in US can hold their heads high. (Dec 2007) Make legal immigration quick, or outsource it if we can’t. (Dec 2007) FactCheck: AR college bill accepted illegals after 3 years. (Nov 2007) Punish people who break the law; but not their children. (Nov 2007) Focus on demand: penalize employers of illegal immigrants. (Sep 2007) Some anti-immigration advocates are based on racism. (Sep 2007) People are angry at government for failing to track illegals. (Sep 2007) Problems with McCain-Kennedy: credibility; secrecy; spending. (Jun 2007) Allow in professionals as legal immigrants, but seal border. (Jun 2007) Change rule barring immigrants from running for president. (May 2007) Path to citizenship if illegals admit guilt & pay fine. (Jan 2007) Deport the illegal immigrants who don’t do it the right way. (Jan 2006) Seal the borders in a responsible way. (Jan 2006) Share costs of legal immigration between states & federal. (Feb 2001) Federal government should deal with criminal repatriation. (Feb 2001) Import farm workers from Mexico. (Sep 2001)

I didn’t want to wait for the government to rescue me. (Sep 2008) Competition breeds excellence, including in the GOP race. (Feb 2008) Kenneth Copeland is a friend, innocent until proven guilty. (Feb 2008) Hunted and ate fried squirrel in college days. (Feb 2008) Without moral absolutes, we are lost and confused. (Feb 2008) Childhood heroes in AR: Jesus, Elvis, and FDR. (Feb 2008) American’s greatness is because we’re rooted in our faith. (Feb 2008) Not exiting; I didn’t major in math; I majored in miracles. (Feb 2008) Limbaugh is a great voice for conservatism, not infallible. (Jan 2008) Presumptuous and arrogant to suggest Reagan would endorse me. (Jan 2008) Only candidate who’s faced Clinton political machine before. (Jan 2008) Ought to be able to respect people who don’t have any faith. (Jan 2008) People should deal with the use of faith in my campaign. (Jan 2008) Declined to answer Boston Globe questions on Executive Power. (Dec 2007) Treat others as you wish to be treated. (Dec 2007) I’m a conservative, but I’m not mean about it. (Nov 2007) The social conservative’s candidate for president. (Oct 2007) Even if GOP loses elections, we should not lose our honor. (Sep 2007) N.H. strategy: stick with convictions & straight answers. (Aug 2007) Not thinking about Vice Presidency despite heavy speculation. (Aug 2007) Never forget that ordinary citizens are the President’s boss. (Aug 2007) Valuing life is the country’s most pressing moral issue. (Jun 2007) Character IS the issue; we DO legislate morality. (Jun 2007) Our culture of life separates us from Islamic fascists. (May 2007) America needs optimistic leadership to revive national soul. (Jan 2007) George W. Bush has done a magnificent job. (Jan 2007) Vertical lift-up politics rather than horizontal left-right. (Jan 2007) Finished Little Rock marathon in 4:38 after 3 years training. (Jan 2007) Thermometer leaders just read room; thermostats adjusts room. (Jan 2007) Live beyond your lifetime by planting seeds in others. (Oct 2000) Positive thinking works, if based on positive principles. (Oct 2000) GOP lost 2006 election because they failed to do their job. (Jun 2007)

Faith & Religion

Judge Romney, & any candidate, by record, not by faith. (Dec 2007) Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office. (Nov 2007) I believe the Bible is the word of revelation. (Nov 2007) Plenty of choices for candidates who don’t believe in God. (Jun 2007) One worldview will prevail: God-centered or human-centered. (Jun 2007) Pastors & politicians have same skill set in common. (Jun 2007) Ten Commandments are basis for appropriate behavior. (Jun 2007) A “grace Christian”: dislikes “law Christians” AND liberals. (Jun 2007) My faith does affect my decision process; it explains me. (May 2007) We are a nation of faith, and we are stewards of God’s world. (Jan 2007) Ordained Baptist minister; I make no apology for my faith. (Jan 2007) People of faith feel responsible for God’s world. (Jan 2007) 10 Commandments: principles to live by, not just pop culture. (Oct 2000) The spiritual side of our lives really does matter. (Oct 2000) Faith gives us a focus for the future. (Oct 2000)

Islamofascism must disappear from the face of the earth. (Feb 2008) Leave Iraq with victory and honor, however long it takes. (Jan 2008) We are making progress in Iraq, Afghanistan, & war on terror. (Jan 2008) Saddam might have had WMD and got them to Syria before 2003. (Jan 2008) Don’t second-guess Iraq; pullout would be bigger mistake. (Jan 2008) Failing to find the WMDs doesn’t mean they weren’t there. (Jan 2008) Never questioned the surge; never supported timed withdrawal. (Jan 2008) FactCheck: Correct that Romney did support timed withdrawal. (Jan 2008) Iraq War: we invaded an imaginary country based on poor info. (Jan 2008) Know your enemy: jihadists would destroy civilization. (Jan 2008) Supports Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force. (Jan 2008) Re-establish diplomatic ties to Iran, so we can move forward. (Jan 2008) Go after al Qaeda’s safe havens in Pakistan. (Jan 2008) Stay in Iraq because we’re winning; we lose if we walk away. (Dec 2007) Train & arm Kurds to prevent cross-border PKK incursions. (Oct 2007) Attack Iran’s nukes even if Congress says no. (Oct 2007) Many don’t comprehend the threat: they want our obliteration. (Sep 2007) We bought Iraq because we broke it; responsibility to honor. (Sep 2007) We made Saudis rich; pressure them to help win with honor. (Aug 2007) Iraqi government disappointing, but we can’t up & pull out. (Jun 2007) Insist that Iraq’s neighbors assist military & financially. (Jun 2007) We needed 300,000 troops to win Iraq; must finish the job. (May 2007) Don’t judge Iraq war while we’re in the middle of the war. (May 2007) Iraq war has made us overlook domestic agenda. (Jan 2007) Opposing Bush’s troop surge is a dangerous position. (Jan 2007) Make sure we finish the job in Iraq and finish it right. (Jan 2007) Strength is more effective deterrent to war than weakness. (Jan 2007) We should go to war with the army that we need. (Jan 2006) Deal with terrorism as a joint federal-state responsibility. (Feb 2001) Include states in anti-terrorism planning. (Sep 2001)

You know we can. I started this because there are actually people here that like Huckabee. Also, I wanted to give you a chance to say what you actually do not like about him other than him being a former Baptist minister. Obama came out of nowhere. Reagan had a poor showing in a previous election before being elected president. As you said in another thread ...

Rich wrote:

Hitler was pretty bold, too. And pretty wrong, just like Huckabee.

Also, it gives Christian conservatives a look at what Huckabee actually stands for since we have a tendency to want to vote for candidates based on their religious commitment. (This is a dangerous thing since in the book of Revelation it hints that the antichrist will use the Christian faith. If anyone wants to talk about this we can talk about it in the Spiritual forum. )

I've heard a few of the candidates talk about eliminating the IRS (although you really cannot eliminate it all together). What do you all think about the Fair Tax which Huckabee pushes? Wouldn't that make it that everyone, lower/middle/upper classes, pay the same tax?

I refuse to participate in a discussion with a person who keeps putting words in my mouth.

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Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:02 am

Big Dave

Phinfever Owner/Admin

Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:41 amPosts: 9748Location: Raleigh, NC

Re: Mike Huckabee

Rich wrote:

I refuse to participate in a discussion with a person who keeps putting words in my mouth.

All right, Rich, you didn't say you didn't like him based on him being a Baptist minister. You said you didn't like him because he believes the earth is 6000 years old. Below are your comments about it. What is "pretty wrong" about him?

Rich wrote:

He thinks the world is 6,000 years old.

Rich wrote:

Why shouldn't it be part of a political discussion? If someone believes that the earth is 6000 years old, when every scientist in the world tells us it's billions of years old, why shouldn't I take that into account when I'm assessing the rationality of someone I'm going to put into the highest office in the land?

Rich wrote:

The purpose is shock value using an exaggerative comparison to show how silly him liking him more because he believes Earth is only 6,000 years old is.

Rich wrote:

I did not say he was a religious leader. But he is an ordained baptist minister.

The thing that can make this country great again is not whether gays are allowed to marry or serve openly in the military.

Second of all, he is far from a fiscal conservative.

This country needs a president that is going to seriously address our national debt.

1. One way to do that is to seriously reduce the size of the federal government by cutting expenses on entitlement programs. Another way is by performing an audit of military spending. For far too long, no one has seriously bothered questioning how defense spending truly works. No bid contracts to companies like Halliburton etc. There is no competition for companies acquiring military contracts. Too many programs that use up a lot of money, but do they all produce the desired results?

2. Another way is to revitalize the manufacturing and exporting of this country. Our economy cannot survive as a service-based economy while we import goods from China and cars from Japan.

3. Lastly, history has shown that cutting taxes on Americans actually increases federal tax revenue by revitalizing the economy. People argue that cutting taxes reduces government tax revenue and point to growing deficits under Bush and Reagan. They are oversimplifying and not looking at the facts. Under Bush and Reagan, deficits grew, but not because of tax cuts. Tax revenues actually increased. Unfortunately, so did entitlement and defense spending.

And here is where the problem with Huckabee lies. I am ideologically opposed to him on both fronts. I am ideologically opposed to his social conservative views and I am ideologically opposed to his fiscally liberal views.

Some may raise their eyebrows that I call Huckabee a fiscal liberal because of the things he says. But what he says now and how he governed Arkansas are two different things. And actions speak louder than words.

While governor of Arkansas, you might be surprised to find out that Huckabee increased taxes to increase funding for education. In 2001, he signed into law a bill requiring a “quality assurance fee,” which was a $5.25 fee per bed, per day for nursing homes designed to increase funding for the state Medicaid program. It was dubbed a "bed tax". He also approved a 3 cent per gallon increase in gasoline taxes and a 4 cent per gallon increase in diesel fuel taxes in 1999. All in all, Huckabee instituted 21 tax increases while governor of Arkansas. But he tells a completely different story regarding his fiscal record.

Huckabee also likes to brag about having a balanced budget every single year as governor of Arkansas. He doesn't mention that the state constitution has a balanced budget requirement (which our federal constitution should have as well).

The point is he is just another politician trying to have it both ways. He knows he needs to be come off as a fiscal conservative, especially nowadays, to win the Republican nomination. But his record points in a different direction. Actions speak louder than words, and I have an considerable sample size of the way he governed Arkansas to know that his actions back then contradict his words now.

It is the same thing I said about Obama as he was trying to run as a centrist. His past actions, his voting record, his associations all indicated that he was a far left liberal who would explode the size of government. He talked about being fiscally responsible and governing from the middle. Right now, his voting record and the type of people he surrounded himself with are trumping the words he said while on the campaign trail.

Ever since he went to Fox News and turned into more of a puppet of the Republican Party I've been a little turned off...but if we were going into the same election as 08, I'd still vote for him.

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Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:13 pm

AQNOR

2014 Phinfever VIP!

Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:17 amPosts: 3866

Re: Mike Huckabee

Quote:

Huckabee's Fiscal RecordNovember 21, 2007Under fire from conservatives, the former Arkansas governor misrepresents his tax hikes, and cuts.SummaryRepublican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been hit with criticism over his record on taxes as governor of Arkansas. The faultfinders have been members of his own party, who take issue with tax increases he enacted. In recent interviews on Fox News, Huckabee responded to some of these questions, but we found him to be misleading and incorrect on several points:

•Huckabee claimed that a speech in which he implored the state Legislature to raise taxes was in response to a state Supreme Court order to increase education funding. But he specifically said in that speech that he would address the education matter at a later date.•He said a tax on beds filled in nursing homes was a "fee" not a tax, despite the fact that he himself has called it the "bed tax."•Huckabee claimed a gasoline tax was only passed after 80 percent of voters approved it. Not true. The tax was enacted before a referendum vote on highway repairs.•He frequently says he cut taxes "almost 94 times" but leaves out the 21 taxes raised during his tenure. In the end, he presided over a net tax increase.Also, we find that former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson stretched the truth in claiming that Arkansas' spending had doubled under Huckabee. It didn't increase that much, and Huckabee left a sizable surplus.

AnalysisFormer Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has drawn fire from fiscal conservatives who accuse him of pushing for tax increases. It's an issue that has garnered plenty of back and forth in the blogosphere – and, as Huckabee's campaign has gained ground in Iowa, from the Republican presidential candidates themselves. A CBS News/New York Times poll shows him winning approval from 21 percent of Republican likely caucus-goers in Iowa to front-runner Mitt Romney's 27 percent – with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

In recent interviews on Fox News, Huckabee responded to some of the sniping with inaccurate and misleading descriptions of his actions as governor. The campaign of one of his rivals, Fred Thompson, sent out an e-mail this week disputing some of Huckabee's recent remarks. We also find the Thompson camp to be wrong on one of its criticisms.

Bluffing on Tax Increases

A recent YouTube video, first posted by a conservative Arkansas blogger, shows about one minute of a May 2003 speech in which Huckabee encourages the Arkansas Legislature to pass tax increases. In a Fox News interview, Huckabee said that portion of the speech was taken out of context:

Huckabee (Fox News, Nov. 14): That was in the context of a [Arkansas] Supreme Court order that we had to fund education at a higher level. The legislators had come down to the special session and there was all kinds of talk about, well, this tax increase or that revenue possibility is out of the question, dead on arrival. … Now we were at the point, with a court order over our heads – we were going to have to improve our schools.

Getty Images Huckabee also invites listeners to “look at the whole speech, if you can stand it,” claiming that it shows a very different message from the one that clip implies. We have pretty strong stomachs here at FactCheck.org, so we called Huckabee’s bluff. (The entire speech is available in two parts.) We found that the full speech does indeed show a different message. But it’s Huckabee who’s out of step with the facts.

It is true that in November 2002 the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the state's funding of its public schools violated the equal protection clause in the Arkansas Constitution. Public schools in poorer parts of the state were being underfunded. The court gave the state until Jan. 1, 2004, to correct the problem. So Huckabee is correct in claiming that he was under a court order to increase public school funding.

But that is not why Huckabee was in front of the Arkansas Legislature in May 2003. Even without the court order to increase public school funding, Arkansas was facing a budget shortfall. For the fiscal year that ended June 2002, that shortfall was $209 million, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration. The fiscal year 2003 gap was $66.7 million. Huckabee’s plea for a tax increase was aimed at covering these revenue shortfalls. But don’t take our word for it. Here’s Huckabee earlier in that same speech:

Huckabee (state Legislature, May 2003): But the issue that brings us back to this Capitol on this day cannot wait any longer. The urgency of passing budgets for various state agencies is critical, but just as critical is passing a revenue stream that will fund these budgets and provide an adequate level of service, particularly in the areas of Medicaid [sic], as well as the Department of Corrections.

The line that really got our attention, though:

Huckabee: The business of education, we’ve decided to let that wait until the fall.

We take no position on Huckabee’s call for tax increases. But we do suggest that bluffing on a busted hand is a bad move in the YouTube age.

A Tax By Any Other Name ...

On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Huckabee about several taxes for which the conservative organization Club for Growth has lambasted the governor, including one on nursing home patients. Huckabee played with semantics in his response :

Huckabee (Fox News Sunday, Nov. 18): Well, we didn't raise them on nursing home patients. That was a quality assurance fee that was supported by the industry.

Huckabee backed and signed into law a 2001 bill requiring a “quality assurance fee,” which was a $5.25 fee per bed, per day for nursing homes designed to increase funding for the state Medicaid program. Arkansas media outlets and state legislators dubbed it the “bed tax,” and in fact, Huckabee himself has called it that on at least one occasion. In discussing a controversy over the subsequent hikes in prices charged to private-insurance patients (those who personally pay their bills), he said:

Huckabee (quoted in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 19) : Many of them told their patients that it was directly resulted from the bed tax. What we have shown you is that is not true; some of these increases are not the result of the bed tax.

Whether the governor calls it a tax or a fee, the money charged was to be adjusted annually so that nursing homes would pay an annual fee "equal to six percent (6%) of the aggregate annual gross receipts,” according to Act 635 of 2001. The legislation also stipulated that nursing homes could not list the fee as a separate charge on billing statements to patients.

It is true, as Huckabee said, that the industry strongly supported the measure. The president of the Arkansas Health Care Association said the group was "ecstatic" that the governor signed the bill into law, according to the Democrat-Gazette. Huckabee had vetoed a bill that would have raised the funds through a tax on tobacco products.

Huckabee also told Fox News that the bed tax "increased the quality of care by increasing the staffing requirements." The tax may have led some homes to hire more employees, but a separate piece of legislation specifically increased the staffing requirements. Despite that law, a 2003 congressional report by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that many of Arkansas' nursing homes didn't meet federal staffing recommendations.

Increases with Voter Approval?

Huckabee has similarly been playing loose with the facts about gas tax increases. In 1999, the Arkansas Legislature approved – with Huckabee’s support – a 3 cent per gallon increase in gasoline taxes and a 4 cent per gallon increase in diesel fuel taxes. Huckabee has claimed in campaign appearances and on Fox News that these increases were part of a statewide referendum that passed with 80 percent voter approval. Here is an exchange with Fox News’ Sean Hannity:

Hannity (Nov. 16): You talked about cutting taxes and balancing budgets. You know, what was the net result? You did support some tax increases, but some tax cuts. Can you explain that?

Huckabee: Yes, I did. Certainly, there was an issue that involved road building and infrastructure on roads and bridges, and I did support that. We added $1 billion to our economy, 40,000 jobs, went from having the worst to the best roads. When we put that out there for the people to decide whether they wanted to affirm it, they did by an 80 percent vote, I would call that leadership.

We would call that not true. Huckabee is right that about 80 percent of Arkansas voters approved a referendum to increase funding for highway repair. But the referendum happened after the gas tax hike had already become law.

Huckabee seems to be describing the plan he wanted rather than the plan he actually supported. In Huckabee’s initial proposal, a tax increase on diesel fuel would be used to finance bonds that would, in turn, be used to repair major highways. The higher diesel fuel tax would have taken effect only if the bond initiative passed, according to the Associated Press. Huckabee’s plan, however, met resistance from Democratic lawmakers, many of whom were from rural districts that did not have major highways but that did have roads badly in need of repair. Their proposed alternative was to add a gasoline tax hike to the bond referendum.

But Huckabee actually campaigned against sending the gas tax proposal to the voters. Eventually he supported a plan under which the gas and diesel tax increases would take effect regardless of whether the bond passed.

Championing His Tax Cuts

The former Arkansas governor is fond of saying – in debates, on his Web site and in that Nov. 18 Fox News interview – that he cut taxes "almost 94 times in my state." (On his site, he rounds up to "nearly 100 times," adding that he saved "the people of Arkansas almost $380 million.")

That turns out to be far from the whole story. The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration found that 90 tax cuts were enacted in legislative sessions from 1997 through 2005, while Huckabee was governor, and those cuts reduced tax revenues by $378 million. But Huckabee fails to mention the 21 tax increases that occurred under his watch and that raised revenues by substantially more. The total net tax increase under Huckabee's tenure was an estimated $505.1 million, says the Department of Finance and Administration's Whitney McLaughlin, adding that the figure has been adjusted for inflation.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette combed through a list of those 90 tax cuts, finding that a number of them pertained to very specific taxes and relatively small amounts. (We asked the Huckabee campaign for its tax tally, but we didn't get a response.) The newspaper does give Huckabee credit for spearheading "one of the largest tax cuts in Arkansas history," an income-tax cut that amounted to $90.6 million in one year alone.

He Obeys the Law, Too

In that Fox News Sunday interview, Huckabee said that he balanced the state budget “every single year of my 10.5 years as governor,” a boast that he has repeated on the campaign trail. What Huckabee forgot to mention is that the Arkansas Constitution has a balanced budget requirement. The state can run a deficit only if a majority of voters approve such a move in a statewide election. To his credit, Huckabee does sometimes acknowledge the balanced budget requirement. But to our ears, trying to claim credit for obeying your state’s constitution is a bit like bragging that you obey the law of gravity.

Hey Big Spender

Huckabee's critics, however, have done some exaggerating of their own. That press release from former Tennessee Sen. Thompson accuses Huckabee of more than doubling state spending, from $6.6 billion to $16.1 billion at the end of 2006. But those numbers aren't correct. When we talked to Mike Stormes, the administrator of the Office of Budget for the state of Arkansas, we discovered a different story. In fact, after adjusting for inflation, we found that spending in fiscal year 1998 (the first budget for which Huckabee was responsible) was actually $10.4 billion, while spending at the end of 2006 was $15.6 billion. That’s a big increase, but it’s a far cry from doubling state spending.

It’s worth noting, too, that Huckabee, despite facing a $200 million shortfall in 2002, ended his term with a surplus of $844.5 million. A billion dollar turnaround is, we think, a noteworthy accomplishment.

Governor Huckabee’s rocket launch into the top tier of Republican candidates makes me wonder if anybody is paying attention. His record as a big government taxer is pretty clear; as governor of Arkansas he increased taxes and increased Arkansas’ debt by over a billion dollars. The state’s economy under Huckabee was no better when he left after ten years than when he began, and The Club for Growth reviews his performance as a “mixed bag” at best.

Clearly he is not a conservative, but his support of the “Fair Tax” is the thing that really sets up red flags. The old adage, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit”, has never erred in appraisal of salesmen or politicians, and Mike Huckabee is full of it.

The Fair Tax is essentially an increase in the sales tax accompanied by eliminating all income taxes to finance government operations, suggesting somehow that this form of tax collection will fairly redistribute the tax burden. When politicians say “fair” it means “get the rich guy”, and “rich guy” is anyone who makes a little more than minimum wage.

Huckabee’s suggestion that the fair tax is a preferable system is typical of bureaucratic thinking and it is the kind of thinking you would never see from a fiscally responsible businessman.

How much is it going to cost to completely alter the manner in which we collect taxes?

How are those costs going to manifest themselves in the minutia of bureaucratic incompetence?

Why is this form of taxation “Fair” while our current system is not?

What makes us think “Rich Guys” are not going to change their behavior when faced with a 30% 23% sales tax on that new yacht, and choose to make such purchases out of the country or refrain from such purchases all together? Perhaps yacht guy needs a new 2,000 square foot addition to his house, and building contractor guy does it for free in exchange for that million dollar yacht for a hundred grand. Even if this scenario isn’t feasible, you get the idea.

Human aversion to taxation is like water, it will always find a preferable path when blocked, and no bureaucrat is any match for a man who has earned his own money.

The unanticipated consequences of such a broad and sweeping policy shift cannot be anticipated, and on top of that, it’s never going to happen. Huckabee’s support of such a policy change is either naïve, indicating his lack of readiness for the job, or is a disingenuous political maneuver designed to capture dispirited voters, indicating his lack of readiness for the job.

There is nothing wrong with the way we collect income tax, it is just that the government takes way too much and deliberately penalizes success encouraging our most effective producers to waste loads of time and money in tax avoidance strategies instead of building their businesses providing goods, services, and jobs.

Steve Forbes wrote a great book, The Flat Tax Revolution, where he demonstrated how a fair and equitable tax system has spurred dozens of economies (previously imprisoned behind the iron curtain) which are now free after the Soviet Union’s disintegration.

From above in Dave's post. This sounds alot like our Presidents reasoning on the so called stimulus bill.

About $250 billion of the stimulus was designed to do that. But most of that money is still in the que and very few of these "shovel ready" projects have started.

It is the only portion of the stimulus that I supported.

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Fri Feb 26, 2010 2:51 pm

AQNOR

2014 Phinfever VIP!

Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:17 amPosts: 3866

Re: Mike Huckabee

It is hard for me to keep up but I thought that some of that money(infrastructure) had been spent on non-existent jobs in non-existent zip codes?

If the work needs to be done great, but wouldnt that work have been done anyway? So why put it in a stimulus package? If the work was shovel ready it seems that the financing would have been considered anyway.